Purification of Molten Zinc Chloride-Alkali Chloride by Cementation Reaction

Zinc is widely used for galvanization of steel plates due to its high corrosion resistance. Steel scraps containing waste zinc-coated steel plates are remelted for recycling of steel in electric arc furnace (EAF) process, in which zinc is concentrated in EAF dust ranging from 10 to 40 mass%. Therefore, recycling of zinc from EAF dust is important to secure zinc resource. Our group has proposed selective chlorination and evaporation method recovering zinc as a form of chloride from EAF dust. Since recovered zinc chloride may contain lead, iron and copper as impurities, purification of zinc chloride is essential for production of highly pure metallic zinc. In the present study, removal of lead chloride from molten zinc chloride-alkali chloride by cementation reaction adding zinc was investigated. Experimental results were analyzed and discussed thermodynamically and kinetically as well as the feasibility and limitation of this process were examined.